Track By Track: Fiona Harte - 'Home Recordings EP'
North Irish singer-songwriter Fiona Harte has just released her dreamy debut EP ‘Home Recordings’ - she took a moment to talk to us about the EP - track by track.
Auburn
Auburn was recorded by myself at home. I sent a rough demo guitar part to a session player in Belfast called Colm McClean and he came up with the gorgeous part on the recording. I then just added the vocals and it was basically done - that’s the beauty of having an EP called ‘Home Recordings’. I wrote this song about the saying "the grass is always greener". It’s about how we’re always wondering what's next, so much so that sometimes we miss the moment that we're in. The line "Somewhere in that Auburn sky there's a honey pot with roses scattered over an old parking lot" is a metaphor for how sometimes things aren't always as they seem.
Have You Ever Seen The Rain
This is a song I have always adored! I had the other three songs for the EP ready and one original that I liked, however I just kept repeating this song in my head over and over again while selecting the final tracks for the record. I suppose I took it as a sign. It’s my first EP release and I felt as though this track had been a big part of why I loved songwriting, because I had heard it so much growing up. So I sort of felt like I shouldn't ignore the gut feeling I had to put in on here. The recording is just piano and vocals. The piano player recorded from home, sent me the file and I just put the vocals on top. Easy studio day!
Sugar Coating
Sugar Coating was the first single released off 'Home Recordings'. Inspired by these trying times I decided to start a project during the isolation period writing and recording songs from my bedroom, no studio, no band, just me. Sugar Coating is a track I started writing a few months back and never finished until recently. It has a bit of a different vibe to the other tracks with more R&B inspired melodies I would say. The song is about telling someone how you feel about them and in a world as unpredictable as the one we live in I think that's important. Again it’s Colm McClean on guitar. The song has reached over 100k streams over the past few months.
What is Loving Anymore
I wrote this song with Ryan O'Shaughnessy a few months back. It’s the final single off the EP and one of my favourites, if I am honest. We recorded a studio version which I love but I also wanted to put a home recording of the song on this record. It was recorded in a bedroom, in just one take, and a few harmonies were added in after. The song explores uncertainty around the meaning of love and questions whether it's possible to find it again after experiencing it heartbreak. What Is Loving Anymore is one of the most honest songs I have ever written, and my mother's personal favourite, so it had to make the cut!